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(J = Jamie - A = Audience
- Q = Question)
J : Hi
A : Hi
J : Is this ...what ... Q
& A or what ...
Gwen : Yes
J : OK. How about some
Q's
Someone in public : Q's!
J : Any questions?
No reaction so J : OK fine (and he sits down
again, as if the Q&A is over)
(laughing)
J : It's great to be back
and see a lot of old friends and some new faces ...
welcome. ... For those of you who aren't familiar
with ME , I want to put it straight ... I had
nothing to do with Beauty and the Beast actually, I
had nothing to do with the show. I came in in 1993.
I accidentally came across a Beauty and the Beast
convention. In fandom you have a lot of crossover
where you got BB fans who were Star trek fans, and
Star Trek fans were BB fans and I did a National
Star Trek convention in Texas and some people who
were BATB fans were there and they said " Oh you
have to come to this convention that we're having"
and I've never heard of it before.
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I watched the show when it
first aired and I liked it a lot. I work in
television so I really appreciated the work that
went in to it, I mean the photography, the writing,
the editing. I enjoyed the technical aspects, I
never got into the romantic story ... but I loved
the photography, the technical side and so I was
familiar with the show and I said well Ok, sure,
fine, whatever. So I went down and I immediately
got sucked into it and made a lot of friends and
while I was there they put me to work and they've
been putting me to work every year
since.
Since 1993 I've done every
BATB con in the States and I've been lucky ... this
is what my fifth trip here ...(yes, someone in
audience) ... I've lost count ... yeah ... and it's
... yeah ... And I have done a lot of science
fiction conventions, Star Trek conventions ... I
don't really consider this BATB stuff conventions
... it's a family reunion and it's great to see
family again. Thanks.
Hmm, other than that ....
painting is for me just a hobby, something I love
to do. I work full time in Television, that pays
the bills. Painting is a nice hobby and ... it's
suddenly taking off to the point where I am now an
official publish artist , I am doing book covers
now and who knows where it's gonna go from there,
but ... it's great to be here and other than that
it .. euh .. ... ask some question or ... cause I
don't know what to talk about.
Christopher :
(inaudible) ... but on the other hand technology
shouldn't overtake the story ... I like to ask
Jamie whether he feels that we in a sense created
something that took the technology away from the
thinking and did it create ... was (inaudible) the
story or did it overtake the story, this fantasy
technology?
J : I don't know. I think it enhanced it,
greatly, ... it's just that because I work in the
business I was more aware off the technology behind
it, the writing and the photography ... the
photography was stunning. Some of the shots they
had in that show was just amazing. And the music
was incredible And how the whole package's taking
on these different parts and put it together was
wonderful. The technology enhanced it, I don't
think it overpowered it at all. But like I've said,
I do that kind of stuff so I was more aware of it
than for the story itself.
J : Any question? Anything
from the newbies? Yes?
Q : (inaudible) in
television, what do you actually do?
J : As little as possible.
(laughing)
J : In the States they
have Network Television agency's, CBS and a new
Network called UPN ... UPN was a television group
started by Paramount Pictures and they actually
launched the Network with Star Trek Voyager. I work
for the UPN station in Dallas, I have been in
Television for 2*# years (this was an intentional
mumble, a funny way of saying that he has been in
the business a LONG time). I started out as a film
editor and also a cameraman in productions and then
over the years film disappeared and everything is
on video tape now so I am technically now a video
tape editor. It's my job to take a movie from a
distributor and cut it down so it fits into a two
hour's slot and take out naughty bits .. I decide
where the commercial breaks go and ... actually,
there's a real art form to that too .. There's one
station ... television station in town, in Dallas
that ... the engineers would sit there and watch
the clock and on the hour, on the quarter hour, on
the half hour they'll push the button and go to
commercial and they don't care what's happening in
the movie so you could be in the middle of this
suspenseful car chase and they'll cut for
commercial! I look at a movie as very similar to a
book, with chapters ... and it has a rhythm to it,
a flow and I watch and try to decide where I can
take a pause and put a commercial break without
interrupting the flow of the movie. A lot of
television editors don't take the time to do that,
but I love movies so I do it.
I also make sure that the
programs that we air are in house and ready to air
on the day they suppose to air. A lot of the
programs, syndicated programs we get from
distributors and there was one time where one of
the distributors got behind on making dubs of movie
and they didn't ship it out until two days before
we aired it. So I was on the phone for a couple of
days trying to track down this movie because we
didn't have it announced. So that's another part of
my job.
If we do any kind of
production work in the studio, I run camera,
because that's what I am trained in. I had my own
photography business for a lot of years and my
basic education in television production was in
camera work, so I do that too. The nice thing about
working for a small company, is that it is
different every day, you don't really get into a
routine. And so I go to work every day, loving what
I do, it's different every day, I don't get bored
of it. It's small enough where you know everybody
and you don't walk in and say 'Hi' to some ...'
face' you know ... it's like "Hey George! How are
you doing!" And it's a great atmosphere and I've
got the best of both worlds because that job is
flexible enough to allow me to paint and to travel
and do the conventions and stuff. So I am basically
a little kid just out for every little adventure
and enjoying life, it's great, it's
wonderful.
For a lot of years I sang
in rock bands .... for a lot of years I did
photography ...I am the type of person where I'll
try something that seems exciting, and if it works
I'll continue and if it doesn't then I'll set it
aside and try something else and so I am not stuck
being bored doing something. I've carefully chosen
something that I really wanna do, something that I
love to do, and in a lot of cases I am able to ....
what I do makes other people happy and that's
what's really important.
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Working in television,
you're working with a lot of creative people and
there were some producer directors at the station
who (inaudible words) and they were just (inaudible
words) kind off the wall, weird kinda guys, and the
3 of us got together one Halloween, and we were
gonna do something a little more elaborate instead
of just going down to a costume shop and renting
costumes for Halloween. And so we started played
around with special effect's make-up and I just
loved it, I had so much fun. And so I continued,
and I did a cat-beast-lion-man type thing for
Halloween because I wanted to do a werewolf and I
couldn't figure out how to do a nose and so I came
up with this, this cat character and we used him to
host the Star Trek marathons and stuff, put him on
the air ... and then the Star Trek fans saw me on
TV, and started calling the Station, saying "Hey,
who IS this guy? We want him at our
conventions!"
So then I started going to
conventions, and this television show came along
called Beauty and the Beast , and I went "Ooh wow
... look at that make-up! That is too cool". And I
would watch every week just to see how Baker had
designed the face, how it worked into Perlman's
features, and that's really how I learned a lot of
finesse about make-up ... by looking at other
people's work.
But I (inaudible words) a
little before BATB, but then as soon as BATB came
on, then people thought I was trying to do Vincent,
and so then I decided well maybe I should have a
real make-up change, and so Myhr became more cat
like, and less man-beast. And over the years there
has been a transition, you can, if you look back at
old pictures you can really see how it's developed.
Those of you who have internet access, you'll have
to check out Sue Haley's website. She did a website
that has my artwork, and photographs and stuff, and
she has taken some old photographs of Myhr in the
early days. Myhr has actually gone through 4
development stages, and it's really interesting to
see how it's changed. She also has some old
pictures of Jamie ... I think the first one is one
year old (laughter) ... so it's the development
stages of Jamie! (laughter) But the website is
really cool, you need to check it out. There are
some copies of the fan club newsletter over there
that has the website address, and email address and
stuff like that in it.
But I just got fascinated
with doing special effects make-up and the fun
thing about doing science fiction conventions is
you meet people, not only fans but people, other
people in the business, I mean I have hang out with
Hollywood celebrities, and I have met a lot of
special effects people that I've stayed in touch
with and they've taught me a lot and ... it's ...
there's a load of information at conventions. I
wish there were a lot more out there but
unfortunately for some reason conventions are
starting to die out in the States, I don't know how
they are here, but in the States ... it's hard to
find a big convention anymore.
But other than that ...
hmm .. I lost track ... where was I going ... I
have no idea ...I'm rambling (laughing) ... Did
that answer your question
A : Yes
J : Good! I don't even
remember the question! (more laughter) .... Ok, so
I've covered all the questions in the room and that
in one answer (lauhter) ... Yes?
Q : Did you ever had
the chance to meet Ron Perlman's make up
artist.
J : Oo, Margaret Besserra ... she's a hoot!
...Yeah, Yeah (in response to something that was
said by the audience) ... She euh ... The question
was have I met Ron Perlman's make-up artist,
Margaret Besserra... Rick Baker designed the face
and then his company made the foam latex
prosthetics at their lab and then they ship them
over to the studios and then Margaret would apply
the make-up to Ron. As a matter of fact, one of the
guys, who taught me so much about special effects
make up lives in Texas now and he interned with
Rick Baker during the Beauty and the Beast time,
and he won't even talk about Beauty and the Beast
because his job was to make the foam latex
prosthetics suppliences ... hundreds of them, the
same thing over and over and over ... so he even
doesn't wanted to talk about it. But Margaret was a
guest at the Norfolk convention ... no, it was
Virginia beach .... euh ... (Someone says Florida)
.... Yes, she was in Florida too, Virginia beach
and Florida, but the first time she did was
Virginia Beach and it was the first convention
she's ever done ... she had no clue what went on,
she couldn't understand why a group of people would
want to see her and talk to her about her job ...
'cause to her it's a job ... you know ... she just
gets up in the morning and does make-up. and she is
such a sweetheart, she was so shy and very quiet
and had no concept of the whole thing. And we got
to chat just for a little bit ... I would have
loved to have pumped her for questions, but we
didn't get the time to actually just sit and spend
a lot of time.
But in Florida she knew I
was going to be there as a guest so she brought a
lot of photographs ... taken on sets, movies that
she has done make-up on and it was so cool ... All
of the guests of the con went out to lunch one day
and we were all sitting there on this long table
... there were about twelve of us, and we were all
chatting away and she pulls out this stack of
photographs of "Fight Club" .. she had worked on
"Fight Club" with Bratt Pitt and I don't know if
you're familiar with the movie but Bratt Pitt
looses half of his head in a sequence, so we're
sitting there looking at photographs of Bratt Pitt
with brains hanging out ... (laughing) ... skull
bones just kind of hanging on just loose flesh ...
and this was during lunch (laughing). And we were
like little kids "Ooh cool how did she do that! How
did you this!" And everybody along would do "Bahh"
(more laughter) . And yes, it was fascinating,
Margaret is cool and she had some really unique
stories of Ron in the make-up chair. She said that
usually he would just sleep through the whole
thing. And that must be a nice luxury to sit in a
chair for 3 or 4 hours and have somebody do up your
face and then you go on. Me I have to do all of my
make-up myself. I've designed it myself, I put it
on myself ... and the thing with prosthetic make-up
on a face ... you have to do it with your eyes
closed ... and so ...hmmm ... I am really amazed
that I am able to pull of what I do. I 've met Ron
Perlman for the first time in LA in 1995 and he
said the same thing ... he couldn't believe that I
did it myself because he knows what you go through
to do that. And then he was a guest at the Florida
convention and we hang out and drank a lot and had
fun and ... (laughter) ... the guy's cool .... he
really is.
(snip ... Christopher
added some few anecdotes)
J : Anyone?
Q : Tell me about the
painting you have done for this con.
J : The painting I have done for this con.
...Hmmm ... Yeah, I normally do 3 original
paintings for each BATB convention in the states.
And they go on the Art show, they get thrown into
the art-auction and sold so when you get to see art
they are prints of what I have done. I thought that
this time I wanna to an original just for you guys
so you could see what an original actually looks
like ..
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But I wanted to do
something special for this trip too ... so I did an
original piece for this convention and ... I was
... originally I wanted to do something very
classic and romantic ... and so I thought .. "Oooh,
Nottingham Castle" .. you always hear of Robin Hood
and Nottingham Castle and Sherwood Forest ... so I
started to do some research on the internet and I
found some shots of Nottingham Castle and it's
basically a box on a Hill ... (laughter) ... it
doesn't look very romantic. And I came across
another website dealing with Nottingham, called
Wollaton Park, which is an ancient conservatory ...
and the original mansion I think was build in the
16th century or something ... it looked pretty
cool, so I put it in the background and I had
Vincent and Catherine sitting at Wollaton Park just
enjoying the afternoon. And so, if you get over to
the table the original is sitting there. We were
trying to figure out if somebody wanted to buy it
... if I put a price on it, you know some people
might not be able to afford it ... somebody might
come up and buy it right away and not giving
anybody else a chance ... so what we did, we
decided to do a silent bid thing, so if you're
interested in the piece, there is a sheet of paper
over there where you can put a bid on. There's
already a minimum bid of I think £ 75. So if
you wanna buy it, mark it down and at the end of
the weekend, whoever has the highest bid gets the
piece.
But I wanted to do
something special and you get to see what an
original ... not a print looks like. You're welcome
to go up close and see all the little pencil
strokes all the little mistakes and bloopers on it
that you don't get to see with a print.
So that's that. Marina
Broers had some reference photos that I'd never
seen before and, so she was kind enough to loan
them ... actually she has done a pencil sketch and
I said "Oh that's cool .. where did you get that."
... so she was kind enough to loan me some
reference photos that I used for the painting , so
"Thank you, Marina."
J : Yes!
Q : How is it
called.
J : It's called an afternoon in Wollaton
Park.
But it's ... I am not used
to do in outdoor scenes with grass and trees so it
was a challenge for me and normally I just do ... I
work out a pencil sketch and then I take an
airbrush, colour in the lines like a colouring book
with the airbrush, and then I do fine detail with
colour pencil. But this one with the texture of
trees and grass and stuff I round up using regular
every day paintbrushes ... and dabbing on colours
... so it was interesting ... there's a lot of
different techniquesthat i've have never used
before in this piece and ..; I think it turned out
ok.
(audience ... It's
lovely)
J : Thank you.
J : Any more
questions?
I can't think of anything
... after a while I can really understand how
celebrities feel when they do a lot conventions and
a lot of Q & A's because after a while you lose
track of what has been said ..; and what hasn't
been said ..;you don't wanna bore people with stuff
they've heard 20 times already. So ... if you ...
if there's anything .you wanna know .. anything ...
I don't have a personal life so ... you know ..
that's pretty boring (laughing)
Yes?
Q : (partly inaudible)
... it was about choosing a model first or do you
have the idea of a painting first and choose a
model then
J : Good Question!!! I did photography for a
lot of years and primarily photographing ... naked
babes (laughter) ... (inaudible) ... well,
actually, to be honest, I've never mixed business
with pleasure (more laughter) ... I wanna keep it
ethical but I did a lot of glamour and fashion work
so there I had a lot of photographs with models ...
but shooting in a bare studio ... I didn't had a
lab or sets to work with, so I would do pencil
sketches of the models but then I would put it
against fabulous settings ... stuff you couldn't
build in a studio.
And then at a convention I
met Keith Birdsong, who does the Star Trek book
covers ... I don't know if his work is on the Star
Trek covers here but in the States he does all the
Star Trek book covers. And we've spent a lot of
time together and he saw some of my pencil sketches
and photographs and he says "You really should be
painting" so he taught me the basic techniques and
I've gone from there. So Keith really is my
mentor.
And so the painting is an
extension of the photography ... I am building on
to what I could not do with the camera ... But
basically what I do is just a simple photo shoot
... I never have anything planned in advanced ... I
just crank up the music ... get some conversation
going and then I shoot the moods and the reactions
that happen. Most of the women that I photograph
have never done a shoot before ... they have no
idea what to do. So I guide them a little bit as
far as the starting point for poses but then with
the music and conversations they relax and they
open up and then I just shoot what comes naturally
and lots of times the photographs turn out so much
better that way.
And then when I get the
photos back, I go through the stack of photos
...and basically what I do is I flip through the
photos real fast, not really looking at each
individual photograph but just subliminally
capturing the feel of a particular piece and then I
set those aside and then I rule it down to a few
pictures and usually I can look at a photograph and
I'll see a finished painting in my mind and I go
from there. I don't think of a painting first and
then shoot a model to fit it. I do a photo shoot
first and then I ... the painting comes from what
I've shot before. .... For example, in the book
there's a photograph of a woman that I have painted
as a gargoyle ... now, when we were doing the
photoshoot she just happen to mention that her
favourite TV show was the Disney animated series
Gargoyles ... so immediately I thought, " OK, I'll
paint her as a gargoyle." but I had no idea how to
paint her as a gargoyle. So when I got the
photographs back ...then with the idea in my head,
suddenly I saw a pose and it just clicked and so I
painted her that way.
I do a lot of mermaids
because I found over the years that women, most
women would really love to be photographed in the
nude but ... they're afraid of what other people
would think. You know, it's like a fantasy they
have but they really don't have an outlet ... they
don't know a photographer who would be willing to
do it or if they get the photos back what are they
going to do with the pictures ... I mean ... show
anybody?! But if I paint them as a mermaid suddenly
it's exceptable ..; they can be nude as a mermaid
and everybody goes "Oh, what a beautiful painting."
So I do a lot of mermaids. (lots of
laughter).
And it's really
interesting to take a basic photograph and expand
on that idea and work it into a fantasy thing. The
last few years (inaudible) conventions I have been
doing a lot of media paintings ... you know, Star
Trek, Babylon 5, Zena, Hercules ... and I've gotten
away from doing my own creative fantasy stuff. I
want to get back to it so you'll be seeing a lot
more of the mermaids and the gargoyles and fairies.
Fairies are cool too. But I ... you know, you think
of fairies and these translusive dragonfly wings
... that everybody does ... so I started doing
fairies and I would give them the colourful
butterfly wings which I thought was ... you know it
was different but it was also cool ... a lot of
splash of colour.
There was a company in
California that does limited editions, prints, and
posters and greetings cards of fairies and they
heard about me through the grapevine and tracked me
down and contacted me and we talked and it sounded
really promising. They had a contract and
everything all worked up for greeting cards and
posters and things that would be distributed to
specialty stores all over the United States ... so
I sent them some stuff and (laughed) I got this
call back 'But ..; these aren't ... fairies." So I
went, "Well, they're fairies ... in my mind." I
mean, show me a photograph of an actual fairy ..;
what does an actual fairy look like! (laughter).
They wanted this fairy to have gossamer wings so
the project fell through. But I wanna do a lot more
fairies because that's pretty cool. But it's
basically just working on the basic photographs ..;
an extension of what I have done with the camera
and I extend on it with the airbrush.
Yes?
Q : What do you do in
your spare time?
J : What do I do in my spare time (laughing)
... Looking for spare time!, that's what I do. I
work full time in a television station, I also work
part time at a friend's video store .. and that
leaves me about 15, 16 hours a week painting time
... I am trying to learn programs on the computer
because eventually I want to be doing artwork on
the computer, because there's a lot of programs, a
lot of tools ... you can use a graphics tablet and
a pen just like a paintbrush, an airbrush and do
actual artwork in the computer so ... that takes a
lot of time. Have you ever tried to learn a
computer program? (laughing) It takes time. and so
consequently, I really don't have much of a social
life ... luckily I am not married, I don't have a
family to worry about. But .. you know ..I did ....
I sang in rock bands for nine years ... party every
night ... I f you would look back on my complete
life I've probably partied more than all of you put
together.
(Christopher : Sex , drugs
and rock and roll)
J : yeah! (laughter) They
were cool ...
(Then Christopher
continued)
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